Serafina has been participating in an afterschool art class at school. A bunch of her friends are also in the class and she really likes it. Today was the last day of the current session so there was an art show. Tom came home early from work to attend and Serafina was excited to show off her art.
With Sunny.
I loved everything she made but I especially love this tote bag.
Serafina opted not to go to Tahoe this weekend so she could go to her friend Sunny's birthday party. Our kids miss activities sometimes for ski trips, but sometimes it's nice to give them the option to go to an event they want to attend.
Sunny decided to have her party at the same place as last year.
Last time they made pizza; this time they made pasta.
Serafina paired up with Riley to send the dough through the pasta machine.
Riley doesn't go to the same elementary school, but they played soccer on the same team a couple years ago. She's very sweet and very tiny. She looks even tinier next to my tall girl.
Serafina took her cupcake decorating very seriously.
Sweet birthday girl, Sunny.
The whole birthday crew (except the big girls who are too cool for a group picture). Left to right: Cleo, Kaya, Riley, Sunny, Serafina, Kayla, Gianna and up front, Millie.
Tom and Leo decided to go skiing. It was a cold day and Leo was excited to visit the ski up Starbuck.
Tom very wisely booked us a little getaway while the kids were in Colorado. We have not traveled together without the kids since before they were born. Friday night we stayed local and when deciding where to have dinner, I simply said "let's go somewhere the kids would not like". We got vegetarian Indian food, including this giant Dosa.
Saturday afternoon we loaded up Tom's car and headed north. Here's a Snapchat of us right before we escaped our real lives.
Saturday we arrived in Mendocino right before sunset and scored ourselves a reservation at an upscale vegan restaurant called The Ravens. The food was spectacular - beautiful and delicious.
It rained a lot during our drive on Saturday but Sunday morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day. Here's Tom on the lawn of the bed and breakfast.
We headed just a couple miles up the coast to a state park. Here's Tom at a beautiful spot under the highway.
We started off on a hike that had a few obstacles.
And some cool moss on the trees.
The hike was longer than we expected but totally worth it.
It was a beautiful hike and a great way to spend the day.
We rewarded ourselves with taking in the sunset from our room (after a nap, of course).
Monday we started the journey home after breakfast and took plenty of scenic stops.
Tom and his stepmom Carrie have been hatching a plan for years to send the kids out to Colorado to ski with her. I haven't been quite ready for this, but everyone else was ready so plane tickets were bought, bags were packed and the adventure began. The kids were excited but nervous. I was nervous too but trying not to show it. I knew that the airline would keep track of them and Carrie would take good care of them in Colorado, but I couldn't help but worry.
Here they are at the airport on Friday afternoon.
Showing off their unaccompanied minors wrist bands.
And off they go! I didn't cry until I got to the car.
And then they were there, united with Carrie and excited to start a weekend of skiing.
I didn't get as many updates or pictures as I wanted, but I did get assurances that they were doing well and having fun. Saturday was severe weather and Serafina didn't ski. Leo braved the blizzard conditions though. Here he is chatting with Uncle Mike in the lodge after some skiing.
On Sunday the whole crew headed out to ski (except the dog).
The kids came home Monday night. I asked if they had fun and wanted to do it again. They had such a good time, they were ready to jump right back on the plane. We'll let Grandma Carrie recover a bit first but this was a great experience for all of us.
Last Friday, I pulled the kids out of school early so we could drive to Tahoe before a storm rolled in. Unfortunately, we hit a ton of traffic and rain so the drive took a long time. We still got there before bedtime and before the snow started. Saturday it snowed all day. Tom and Leo still skied but Serafina did one run and was done.
Saturday night we settled in for eating and jigsaw puzzling. In the morning, we woke up to this.
Those are our cars. It snowed over three feet overnight. The ski resorts were closed because of avalanche risk and the highway was also closed.
The front door was not an exit route.
We didn't have anywhere to go so we took our time in the morning. The sun was out and there was plenty of shoveling to do. Everyone headed outside.
Tom did a great job uncovering my car.
Isn't it pretty. This road usually has a steady stream of vehicles making their way to the ski resort. It was eerily quiet on Sunday morning.
Our housemate and owner of the house, Stephan decided he needed to get on the roof to clear some of the snow.
It was crappy weather today, and though we weren't particular interested in the Superbowl, we knew we would probably be lazy in the afternoon with the game on the TV. So we wanted to get out and move around a bit. The perfect answer was the roller rink.
We love this place and we were happy to bring Daddy to check it out too.
